There have in the past been provided a plurality of games that might be considered Tic Tac Toe type games in which scoring is achieved by positioning a certain number of player members in a straight line. For example, the game THROW IN A ROW.TM. manufactured by Tonka Corporation consists of three vertical tubes each with a funnel at the top into which the players toss balls to achieve scoring patterns. The CONNECT FOUR manufactured by Hasbro, Inc. has been an extremely successful game and includes a plurality of vertical slots formed in a single plane into which the players alternately drop checker-like player members in an effort to achieve four player members in a row either diagonally, horizontally or vertically. A game called IN THE DARK.TM. manufactured by Parker Brothers is similar to the CONNECT FOUR game.
In each of the THROW IN THE ROW.TM., CONNECT FOUR, and IN THE DARK.TM. games, the strategy component is relatively low because once the player members achieve a certain position in the slots they are not movable from that position at any time later in the game.
The SHIFT TAC TOE.TM. planar game manufactured by Pressman, Inc. does include nominal shifting of elements. In this game a plurality of vertical slots are formed in a single plane device and the player members, like the CONNECT FOUR game are dropped in from the top. Horizontal shifting is accomplished by levers along the side edges.
A MAKE 7.TM. also manufactured by Pressman, Inc. is similar to the CONNECT FOUR and THROW IN A ROW.TM..
Less commercially successful games have been the subject of many United States and foreign patent applications. For example, the Housley, U.S. Pat. No. 2,773,690, the Tuan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,931, and the Unique, U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,878 all disclose three dimensional Tic Tac Toe type games where the player-members, once positioned in the matrix cannot thereafter be moved without removing the members from the matrix itself.
The Swiss, CH Patentschrift 562,487 issued Jun. 7, 1974 and the Canadian Patent 602,970 issued Aug. 9, 1960 both show lattice-type matrix games in which resilient balls are held in position by the lattice framework itself. This design requires that the balls have a larger diameter than the cube in which it is held and be made from a cushion material and because of this it is not possible to shift the balls from one cube to another within the matrix.
The United Kingdom patent application GB 2,198,359 published Jun. 15, 1988 shows a block-like game that falls in the category of the immovable three dimensional games discussed above.
The Replogle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,487 shows a three dimensional Tic Tac Toe game in which it is possible to move the spherical player members through the matrix. However, this requires the use of an elongated tool 24 to move the members through the matrix and because the ball locations within the matrix are separated by a distance equal to approximately three times the diameter of the ball itself, it is not possible to utilize the tool 24 to force more than one ball at a time from one location to another. That is, if the tool is utilized to force one ball against another, only the ball engaging the ball will be appropriately positioned and the ball forced by that ball will be in a no-man's land location between ball position.
The Breslow, U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,727, the Hyland, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,395 and the Palladino, U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,709 show similar game configurations that should be viewed by the reader to complete the appropriate background prior art but are not believed more relevant than any of the patents specifically commented on above.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a unique Tic Tac Toe game that ameliorates the problems and limitations of presently marketed or previously patented games of this type.